Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Congressional Hearings Transcript

Ukraine and Belarus, which are undergoing an extremely difficult
period of transition from the devastating effects of 70 years
of communism, are simply not in a position to deal, by themselves,
with what is, ultimately, an international problem. The international
community is beginning to respond, as witnessed by the
December 1995 Memorandum of Understanding between Ukraine
and the G-7. This international cooperation is vital. Hopefully,
such cooperation will help prevent future Chomobyls.
For today's hearing, I am very pleased to have this panel of very
distinguished witnesses, including the Ambassadors of the two
countries most aflFected.
Our first witness is Ambassador Serguei Martynov, Ambassador
of Belarus to the United States, since 1993. In 1991, Ambassador
Martynov served as Deputy Permanent Representative of the Republic
of Belarus to the United Nations and subsequently became
Belarus' first charge, opening the Belarus Embassy to Washington.
A career diplomat with Belarus' Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the
Ambassador has 12 years' experience in multilateral disarmament
efforts, especially at the United Nations. The Ambassador will discuss
the impact of Chomobyl on Belarus, the country that received
70 percent of the radiation fall-out.
Our second witness. Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak, in addition to
being Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States since 1994, has
a very direct, personal connection to Chornobyl. A physician, epidemiologist,
and writer by profession, Dr. Shcherbak was an eyewitness
to the Chomobyl disaster and exposed official malfeasance
before and after the accident in his documentary novel Chornobyl.
In 1988 he founded and led the Ukrainian Green movement. He
entered politics in 1989 and was elected to the USSR Supreme Soviet.
Having never been a member of the Communist Party, he
worked closely with Andrei Sakharov. As Chairman of the Supreme
Soviet Subcommittee on Energy and Nuclear Safety, he initiated
the first parliamentary investigation of Chomobyl. In 1991 and
1992, the Ambassador served as Ukraine's Minister of Environmental
Protection and, from 1992 to 1994, as Ukraine's first Ambassador
to Israel.
Dr. Murray Feshbach has been a research professor at Georgetown
University since 1981. Prior to Georgetown, he served as
Chief of the USSR Population Branch of the Foreign Demographic
Analysis Division of the U.S. Census Bureau. Dr. Feshbach is the
co-author of "Ecocide in the USSR: Health and Nature Under
Siege," published in 1992, and has more recently authored a new
book, "Ecological Disaster: Cleaning Up the Hidden Legacy of the
Soviet Regime," and edited an environmental and health atlas of
Russia. Dr. Feshbach will address Chornobyl's public health and
environmental legacy.
Finally, Alexander Kuzma is an attorney by training and has
been with the New Jersey-based Children of Chomobyl Relief Fund
since 1991. He manages the development of new programs, including
hospital development in Ukraine, and a women's and children's
health care initiative begun in Ukraine recently. Mr. Kuzma served
as Chairman of the Chomobyl Challenge '96 coalition.